HEBREW WORD STUDY:   REMEMBER  – ZACAR  –  זכר 

Genesis 40:14:  Only keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh, and get out of this house.”

Joseph did not despair over his situation because  he spent  15 years keeping the name of  Jehovah on his lips as he moved from a pit to slavery to prison to the position of the prime minister of the most powerful nation in the world. After all, he had a promise from God whose name was on his lips. 

This was no ordinary prison Joseph was in, this was the royal prison where only those who are a threat to the kingdom go. Egypt had no other prisons.  If you violated the law you were either tortured or just put to death, often both.  However, a royal prison was nothing but a holding cell for political prisoners.  You were kept alive only until such time you revealed the names of co-conspirators and then had your head lopped off or you awaited a hearing before Pharaoh himself to determine if you were guilty or innocent of the crime for which you were accused. The cupbearer and the baker were there for the same reason as Joseph, waiting for a hearing before the Pharaoh.  There were only two outcomes from this hearing, either the Pharaoh found you innocent and thus absolved you of any crime or he found you guilty and you had your head lopped off.

On that rather disturbing note, let’s look at  Genesis 40:14 at these words: “keep me in mind” and “mentioning me.”  Both are the same words in Hebrew, zacar which means to remember or remember me.  

In the first use of the word, zacar, we find it is in a construct to the word im.   This word is used to express if or suppose. Joseph is expressing this as: “If  you can, please remember me”. Then Joseph  uses the same word, zacar for the cupbearer to make mention of him to Pharaoh.  Zacar, in this case, is in a hiphal form and would suggest that Joseph was not necessarily asking the cup bear to mention him, but to do something or say something that would cause the Pharaoh to remember him. In this context, I would translate this as: “Let’s get this moving”.

Joseph’s appearance before Pharaoh as a foreign slave who tried to rape an Egyptian and the wife of a highly respected court official to boot left him little hope of an acquittal and no hope of a plea bargain.  Yet he zacar, he remembered.  He remembered a dream, a promise from God and he would rather try to live out that promise or die in the attempt.  

Do you feel like you spent enough time in prison not fulfilling God’s promise in your life, yet too afraid of the consequences if  you move forward?  Well, Joseph had the same problem but he decided to move forward even if the odds were against him.  I am 67 years old and like you, I believe God has given me a promise. Like Joseph, I plan to move forward.  I am not sure of the results but I’m going for that promise because I believe it is from God. 

How about you?